Introduction: Beginnings and Endings

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Peter Marks
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Salman Rushdie ◽  
Muslim World ◽  
Parliamentary Democracy ◽  
Muslim Community ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Satanic Verses ◽  
Ayatollah Khomeini

Assassination is a hyperbolic way of describing the toppling of political leaders in a parliamentary democracy. Perversely, through the 1990s, the person in Britain most vulnerable to actual assassination was a writer: Salman Rushdie. His novel The Satanic Verses had been published in 1988 to critical acclaim (winning the Whitbread Best Novel prize) and almost instant attack from sections of the Muslim community in Britain and beyond. The Satanic Verses was banned in India and South Africa, and burned publicly in Bradford in the late 1980s. Some Muslims regarded the book as a slur on Mohammed specifically and on their religion more generally. Because Islam is a global religion, the fury unleashed spread around the Muslim world, culminating in Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini issuing a fatwah, or formal opinion, in February 1989, calling on devout Muslims to kill Rushdie.

Freedom of Speech

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Norton
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Free Speech ◽  
Salman Rushdie ◽  
Freedom Of Speech ◽  
Clash Of Civilizations ◽  
The West ◽  
Van Gogh ◽  
Satanic Verses ◽  
Ayatollah Khomeini ◽  
Charlie Hebdo

This chapter examines how the Muslim question has been linked to the question of freedom of speech. A clash of civilizations that saw the West as the realm of enlightenment, and Muslims in the realm of religion, custom, and tradition, has long been part of spectacles in the Western public sphere. Ayatollah Khomeini gave new life to these civilizational theatrics when he issued a fatwa calling for the assassination of Salman Rushdie, whose The Satanic Verses became the center of a controversy that cast freedom of speech as a Muslim question. However, the martyr to free speech was not Rushdie but Theo van Gogh, the murdered producer of the film Submission. The chapter shows how the dramas surrounding Rushdie, van Gogh, the Danish cartoons and the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo's copycat cartoon provocations mark Muslims as the enemies of free speech.

African Islam and Islam in Africa

2009 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. i-xi
Author(s):  
Ali A. Mazrui
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Muslim World ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Black Africa ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Definition Of

Sub-Saharan Africa is often regarded as part of the periphery, rather thanpart of the center, of the Muslim world. In the Abrahamic world, Africa isoften marginalized. But is there anything special about Islam’s relationshipwith Africa? Are there unique aspects of African Islam? Islam has exerted anenormous influence upon Africa and its peoples; but has Africa had anyimpact upon Islam? While the impressive range of articles presented in thisspecial issue do not directly address such questions, my short editorialattempts to put those articles within the context of Africa’s uniqueness in theannals of Islam. One note: Although these articles concentrate on sub-Saharan Africa (“Black Africa”), our definition of Africa encompasses thecontinent as a whole – from South Africa to Egypt, Angola to Algeria, andMozambique to Mauritania ...

scholarly journals Boundaries of solidarity: a meta-ethnography of mask use during past epidemics to inform SARS-CoV-2 suppression

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. e004068
Author(s):  
Po Man Tsang ◽  
Audrey Prost
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Risk Perception ◽  
Healthcare Access ◽  
Individual Responsibility ◽  
Trust In Government ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Collective Levels ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Meanings ◽  
The Usa

BackgroundMany countries aiming to suppress SARS-CoV-2 recommend the use of face masks by the general public. The social meanings attached to masks may influence their use, but remain underinvestigated.MethodsWe systematically searched eight databases for studies containing qualitative data on public mask use during past epidemics, and used meta-ethnography to explore their social meanings. We compared key concepts within and across studies, then jointly wrote a critical synthesis.ResultsWe found nine studies from China (n=5), Japan (n=1), Mexico (n=1), South Africa (n=1) and the USA (n=1). All studies describing routine mask use during epidemics were from East Asia. Participants identified masks as symbols of solidarity, civic responsibility and an allegiance to science. This effect was amplified by heightened risk perception (eg, during SARS in 2003), and by seeing masks on political leaders and in outdoor public spaces. Masks also acted as containment devices to manage threats to identity at personal and collective levels. In China and Japan, public and corporate campaigns framed routine mask use as individual responsibility for disease prevention in return for state- or corporate-sponsored healthcare access. In most studies, mask use waned as risk perception fell. In contexts where masks were mostly worn by patients with specific diseases (eg, for patients with tuberculosis in South Africa), or when trust in government was low (eg, during H1N1 in Mexico), participants described masks as stigmatising, uncomfortable or oppressive.ConclusionFace masks can take on positive social meanings linked to solidarity and altruism during epidemics. Unfortunately, these positive meanings can fail to take hold when risk perception falls, rules are seen as complex or unfair, and trust in government is low. At such times, ensuring continued use is likely to require additional efforts to promote locally appropriate positive social meanings, simplifying rules for use and ensuring fair enforcement.

scholarly journals Islam and the COVID-19 Pandemic: Between Religious Practice and Health Protection

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aldona Maria Piwko
Keyword(s):  
Religious Practice ◽  
Health Protection ◽  
Muslim World ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
Muslim Community ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
Muslim Countries ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
Rapid Transmission

AbstractThis paper concerns a problem, the global pandemic COVID-19, which has influenced religious practices with respect to health protection across the Muslim world. Rapid transmission of the virus between people has become a serious challenge and a threat to the health protection of many countries. The increase in the incidence of COVID-19 in the Muslim community took place during and after the pilgrimages to Iran's Qom and as a result of the Jamaat Tabligh movement meetings. However, restrictions on religious practices have become a platform for political discussions, especially among Muslim clergy. This paper is an analysis of the religious and political situation in Muslim countries, showing the use of Islam to achieve specific goals by the authorities, even at the price of the health and life of citizens.

scholarly journals Harnessing the Currents of Textual Fluidity: Salman Rushdie's Making of East, West"

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 76-101
Author(s):  
Russell McDonald
Keyword(s):  
Short Story ◽  
Real World ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Salman Rushdie ◽  
Short Story Collection ◽  
Satanic Verses ◽  
Emory University ◽  
The World ◽  
The Right ◽  
East West

Ever since Ayatollah Khomeini sentenced Salman Rushdie to death in 1989 for, in essence, remaking the story of the Prophet Muhammad in The Satanic Verses, Rushdie has repeatedly explored in his works how bringing newness into the world and securing the right to freedom of expression both require challenging traditional assumptions about textual purity. This theme in Rushdie testifies to the real-world implications of current efforts in textual scholarship to represent texts not as authoritative repositories of sacrosanct wisdom but as, in John Bryant’s word, “fluid” conveyors of ever-shifting intentions and meanings. This article focuses on Rushdie’s deployment of textual fluidity in his shaping of his 1994 short story collection East, West. It analyzes selected examples of his revisions by comparing the texts of the volume’s first six stories as they appear in East, West to their earlier published versions, and also by examining unpublished typescripts and proofs relating to East, West in the Salman Rushdie Papers at Emory University. By tracing the evolution of his stories through multiple versions and considering his revisions in light of his conception for East, West as a whole, we learn that Rushdie employs textual fluidity as both a multivalent literary motif and an empowering compositional strategy, often in synergistic ways that affect the work’s interpretive possibilities and yield a deeper understanding of the fluidities not only of language but also of concepts vital to identity for him and his characters, especially East, West, culture, and race.

scholarly journals Islamic Studies in South Africa

1994 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 274-281
Author(s):  
Tamara Sonn
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Total Population ◽  
Muslim Community ◽  
Muslim Population ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Islamic Studies ◽  
The Third ◽  
Northern India ◽  
Arabic Script

Background of South African IslamIn 1994, South Africans will celebrate three centuries of Islam inSouth Africa. Credit for establishing Islam in South Africa is usuallygiven to Sheikh Yusuf, a Macasser prince who was exiled to South Africafor leading the resistance against the Dutch colonization of Malaysia. Thefitst Muslims in South Africa, however, were actually slaves who hadbeen imported, beginning in 1677, mainly from India, the Indonesianarchipelago, Malaysia, and Sri Lanka, by the Dutch colonists living in theCape. The Cape Muslim community, popularly but inaccurately knownas "Malays" and known under apattheid as "Coloreds," is the oldest Muslimcommunity in South Africa. The other major Muslim community wasestablished over a century later by indentured laborers and tradespeoplefrom northern India, a minority of whom weae Muslims. The majority ofSouth African Indian Muslims, classified as "Asians" or "Asiatics," nowlive in Natal and Tramvaal. The third ethnically identifiable group, classifiedas "Aftican" or "Black," consists mainly of converts or theirdescendants. Of the entire South African Muslim population, roughly 49percent are "Coloreds," nearly 47 pement are "Asians," and, although statisticsregarding "Africans" ate generally unreliable, it is estimated thatthey are less than 4 percent. Less than 1 percent is "White."Contributions to South African SocietyAlthough Muslims make up less that 2 petcent of the total population,their presence is highly visible. There ate over twenty-five mosques inCape Town and over one hundred in Johannesburg, making minarets asfamiliar as church towers Many are histotic and/or architectuml monuments.More importantly, Muslims ate uniquely involved in the nation'scultwe and economy. The oldest extant Afrikaans-language manuscriptsare in the Arabic script, for they ate the work of Muslim slaves writingin the Dutch patois. South African historian Achrnat Davids has tracedmany linguistic elements of Afrikaans, both in vocabulary and grammar,to the influence of the Cape Muslims. Economically, the Indian Muslimsaxe the most affluent, owing primarily to the cirmmstances under whichthey came to South Africa. Muslim names on businesses and buildingsare a familiar sight in all major cities and on those UniveAty campusesthat non-Whites were allowed to attend during apartheid ...

al-Afghani, Jamal al-Din (1838–97)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elsayed M.H. Omran ◽  
Oliver Leaman
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Theoretical Explanation ◽  
Muslim World ◽  
Philosophical Theory ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Islamic World ◽  
Theory Of History ◽  
Relative Decline

Al-Afghani is often described as one of the most prominent Islamic political leaders and philosophers of the nineteenth century. He was concerned with the subjection of the Muslim world by Western colonial powers, and he made the liberation, independence and unity of the Islamic world one of the major aims of his life. He provided a theoretical explanation for the relative decline of the Islamic world, and a philosophical theory of history which sought to establish a form of modernism appropriate to Islam.

Human Rights and Cultural Difference: Middle Eastern Perspectives

1994 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sami Zubaida
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Cultural Difference ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Muslim World ◽  
Cultural Imperialism ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Culturally Specific ◽  
The West ◽  
Current Concerns

The idea of a universal doctrine of human rights is currently under attack in the name of cultural particularism and difference. Political leaders in China, Indonesia and Singapore have rejected Western expressions of concern about violations of human rights by their governments, with the argument that Western conceptions of human rights are not universal but culturally specific to the West, and the effort to impose these ideas on others is no less than arrogant cultural imperialism and interference in the affairs of sovereign states. In the Muslim world, too, we hear rejections of Western notions of human rights as culturally specific and the assertion that Islam has its own concepts of rights (which, for a believer, are universal). In this essay I shall explore some of the issues raised in this regard, with examples drawn mainly from Egypt and the Arab world, but which have obvious implications for current concerns in Turkey. I should make it clear at the outset that there is no one Islamic position on this issue, but many. In the Arab world, but more specially in Turkey, there are many Muslim thinkers and activists who have produced Muslim formulations of rights which are not different from the universal ideals.

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